Paul Rudd is Marvel’s ‘Ant-Man’

The Wrap is reporting that Marvel Studios has cast actor Paul Rudd as its Ant-Man, the lead in the forthcoming film from director Edgar Wright and co-writer Joe Cornish. The film is set for release on 31 July 2015, and forms the start of Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It was never in my script. Because even just to sort of set up what Ant-Man does is enough for one movie. It’s why I think “Iron Man” is extremely successful because it keeps it really simple. You have one sort of — the villain comes from the hero’s technology. It’s simple. So I think why that film really works and why, sometimes, superhero films fail — or they have mixed results — because they have to set up a heroand a villain at the same time. And that’s really tough. And sometimes it’s unbalanced.

Which begs the question: will Rudd be playing Hank Pym or Scott Lang, with Wright previously indicating that both characters were in a version of his script.

Created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby, Pym first appeared in Tales to Astonish #27. The Ant-Man persona popped up in Tales to Astonish #35. The character of Eric O’Grady has also worn the mantle, while an Ultimate Comics version of Pym was a mentally fragile and abusive